A Lot Of Work Opportunities Can Be Incredibly Interesting, Particularly If They Happen To Relate To Your Hobbies

As a music fanatic, one of the greatest jobs I’ve had in the past was working for an online business who specialised in buying and selling sought after and collectable music related items, like CDs, vinyl records and an amazing range of memorabilia. The company has been around for about thirty-five years and started out as a mail order company operating from the spare room in one of the director’s homes. Over time the business did well and tapped into a massive market of music fans who wanted a bit more than just the standard CD when their favourite band issued a new album, and during the period that I worked for them the business occupied a large warehouse and an extra storage building.

It looks like the early collector’s market was initially kick-started by albums from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Some early pressings of their albums had limited runs in production, and it was quite normal for the label image to change quite often, meaning if you had bought the album as soon as it was released, there was a great chance that you would be in possession of something worth a bit of money. For example, albums like the original first pressing of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with the cut-out insert, or the first issue of Sticky Fingers with the genuine zip included in the cover are much coveted – if you can find anyone who is happy to sell. Many people would never sell their prized collections, and most of the older material that the company purchased came from people who had inherited them from a relative and had not much interest in music themselves, even though we did know of some people who ended up selling their collections to pay for cosmetic surgery, Laser eye surgery and a university degree.

Another part of the market grew up with fans who had got into a band after two or three albums had been released who then wanted to go back and find all of the early releases so that they had an entire collection of the artist’s output. A great example of this is the debut single release by Manic Street Preachers, which was limited to very few copies, but which at the height of their career several years ago was being sold for up to £750 – for a seven inch vinyl single with two songs on it, in a dull picture bag. I certainly didn’t pay out that amount for my copy, but look at what you could buy with that amount of money – a decent holiday overseas, a classy designer outfit, Laser eye treatment or even a cheap second hand car!

So, with the desire for great condition second-hand products, there was a huge market to be harnessed and that is precisely what the business did, taking in unwanted collections and sharing the availability of individual items to people who had gaps in their collections.

After a while, the music marketing teams started to understand that serious collectors would pay a lot of money to keep their collection up-to-date and some record companies dreamt up what were actually quite cynical marketing ideas, although they would probably not have admitted this to anyone else. For example, the David Bowie ‘Best Of’ compilation released across the planet in 2002 had a different tracklisting for every single country in which it was issued, and many fans tried to collect all of the different versions which were available. We can only ponder what Bowie himself may have spent his share of the profits on, but I’m sure he knows that no amount of money invested in Laser eye treatment will ever alter his eyes until they are the same colour!

The other idea which was used a lot a while back was giving away bonus items with CDs, ranging from badges, bonus recordings of live or previously unreleased demos, clothing, posters – in fact anything that the obsessive fan would be desperate to get hold of. There has now been a clampdown on this sort of marketing, since it was falsely increasing the sales of those artists whose music was being abused like this, so fortunately we never reached the depths of being given free flights, vouchers for Laser eye surgery or teeth whitening or any other irrelevant rewards just for purchasing a CD. But it didn’t stop fans from purchasing the things when they existed.

The business I worked for also had some good connections within the music industry in quite a few countries and consequently, we also sold numerous promotional items which had been issued to pluggers and DJs before a release date and which they then generally passed on to others. Some of the buyers also got hold of items like tour itineraries and exclusive crew clothing from people who had contributed to the tour, but no longer wanted to hang on to the stuff once the tour was done. Some of the itineraries make fascinating reading!

I was sorry to leave the job, as there was nothing better than digging through a mountain of music items, researching them if need be and then enhancing their descriptions on the website for people to purchase. But sometimes a change is as good as a rest.

Tagged with: careers • Cosmetic Surgery • Favourite Band • Hearts Club Band • Hobbies • Jobs • Label Image • Laser Eye Surgery • Lonely Hearts Club • Lonely Hearts Club Band • Mail Order Company • Massive Market • music • Music Fans • New Album • Pressings • Rolling Stones • S Market • Spare Room • Sticky Fingers • Storage Building • University Degree • Vinyl Records • Work Opportunities

Filed under: Jobs & Careers

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